The ACC Falls Hard: Ryan’s Rundown Week 5

This is the week where the Ivy League has officially taken over the D1 Men’s lacrosse scene while the ACC slowly drifts away. It is even more remarkable . So, let’s dive into the rundown!

Scoreboard

Tuesday 3/8

Albany 9 v UMass 12 (America East v CAA)

Binghamton 12 v Hofstra 6 (America East v CAA)

Vermont 7 v Dartmouth 8 (America East v Ivy)

Saint Joseph’s 17 v Drexel 18 (NEC v CAA)

Quinnipiac 10 v Fairfield 14 (MAAC v CAA)

Sacred Heart 12 v Providence 16 (NEC v Big East)

Wednesday 3/9

Canisius 6 v Robert Morris 23 (MAAC v ASUN)

Thursday 3/10

Mercer 12 v Mount St Marys 11 (SoCon v NEC)

Virginia 15 v North Carolina 11 (ACC v ACC)

Friday 3/11

Jacksonville 16 v Bellarmine 2 (SoCon v ASUN)

Marist 9 v Delaware 18 (MAAC v CAA)

Monmouth 15 v NJIT 7 (MAAC v America East)

Rutgers 11 v Princeton 16 (Big Ten v Ivy)

Towson 8 v Saint Joseph’s 11 (CAA v NEC)

Army 18 v Lafayette 12 (Patriot v Patriot)

High Point 13 v Robert Morris 11 (SoCon v ASUN)

Cleveland State 5 v St. Bonaventure 12 (ASUN v MAAC)

St. John’s 10 v Siena 13 (Big East v MAAC)

Utah 10 v UMBC 13 (ASUN v America East)

Saturday 3/12

Georgetown 15 v Richmond 10 (Big East v SoCon)

Albany 6 v Maryland 24 (America East v Big Ten)

Air Force 16 v Bryant 10 (ASUN v NEC)

Bucknell 7 v Boston U 12 (Patriot v Patriot)

Drexel 11 v Marquette 10 (CAA v Big East)

Manhattan 4 v Hofstra 8 (MAAC v CAA)

Mercer 4 v Wagner 13 (SoCon v NEC)

Vermont 10 v Providence 12 (America East v Big East)

LIU 7 v UMass 12 (NEC v CAA)

Harvard 14 v Michigan 9 (Ivy v Big Ten)

Cornell 16 v Penn State 15 (Ivy v Big Ten)

Stony Brook 7 v Brown 10 (America East v Ivy)

Sacred Heart 14 v UMass-Lowell 10 (NEC v America East)

Notre Dame 11 v Ohio State 14 (ACC v Big Ten)

VMI 11 v Detroit Mercy 16 (SoCon v ASUN)

Sunday 3/13

Yale 16 v Denver 13 (Ivy v Big East)

Syracuse 7 v Johns Hopkins 10 (ACC v Big Ten)

Duke 10 v Loyola 12 (ACC v Patriot)

Penn 8 v Villanova 7 (Ivy v Big East)

Colgate 10 v Navy 11 (Patriot v Patriot)

St. Bonaventure 11 v Cleveland State 10 (MAAC v ASUN)

Holy Cross 7 v Lehigh 17 (Patriot v Patriot)

My Top 20

Since transparency is a good thing, here’s my Inside Lacrosse Media Poll ballot for this week:

1. Maryland
2. Virginia
3. Cornell
4. Georgetown
5. Ohio State
6. Penn
7. Notre Dame
8. Princeton
9. Yale
10. UNC
11. Rutgers
12. Jacksonville
13. Army
14. Denver
15. Boston U
16. Brown
17. Duke
18. Utah
19. Stony Brook
20. Johns Hopkins

My top four didn’t change at all this week and there was only minor shuffling behind them. Even though Notre Dame’s record is terrible, I can’t punish them for their strength of schedule. Could they turn into Syracuse where they can’t beat other top 20 teams and fall out of the rankings? Sure. But they start later than others and need to have that chance to do so. I obviously don’t think they will, but it is something to keep an eye on. The other big climber was Princeton who I still have lower than most, but that may change next week! The other changes worth mentioning were BU going up to 15, Duke at 17, and Hopkins jumping in at 20.

First is BU. The Terriers are still undefeated and are playing the toughest schedule they’ve ever had. This could be the year they make a major jump forward as a program. Being on hand for their win over Bucknell reinforced what those close to this team have known: this is a fun group to watch. They have great defense, they love scoring in unsettled situations, and they refuse to play slow offense. Their risk taking as so far paid off, and as they get into the meat of the Patriot schedule, they’ll hope it continues to.

For Duke at 17, it still feels so low for a team that is this good on paper. They should be winning more than they are, but given how many games have been played by the Blue Devils, we have to admit that they just haven’t been. Their last non-conference game is this week before they head into ACC play which gives them two meetings with both Notre Dame and UNC.

Now for Hopkins at 20, they take the spot I had for the Orange. As those two faced off late Sunday it became clear than the loser of that game should not be in the top 20 until they start beating more substantial teams. Hopkins has some fantastic losses, and their season opening win over Jacksonville is much better than Syracuse’s Hobart win. But this team is just a little too inconsistent right now. The potential is there, but the consistency is not.

Conference Comparison

This is the section of the rundown to keep track of how conferences are doing against each other. This year we actually don’t have any teams playing as independents, which is a huge step forward. The big reason I keep track of this is it helps roughly gauge how many teams from each conference to expect in the NCAA tournament at the end of the season. Unless you’re in the top 3 of conferences, you’re probably only sending one team. There are some rare exceptions, but it does help to be aware of what’s going on once everyone switches to conference games and beat eachother up.

After a few weeks of being pretty stagnant, the table had quite a few shakeups this week. Most notably was the Ivy League taking the top spot following a SEVEN WIN WEEKEND! NO LOSSES! Sure they Ivy League is good, but I do wonder if this is a first for the conference. If it’s not, it has to be the first in several years. The other big thing that happened was the MAAC getting out of the basement and not only overtaking the ASUN, but due to the America East’s 2-7 week, they took over for them as well. But things are going to start to stabilize a little bit more here now. The Patriot League is fully into conference play and others are not far behind.

It is also important to point out why I like tracking this information. When the NCAA tournament rolls around, we focus on how many at-large bids different leagues will get. This helps guide that conversation since there really are not many places you’ll see the actual conference record as a whole. If things stopped today, you could fully expect teams from the NEC down to have a single bid. Win the conference, win the bid. Where things get interesting is with the ACC in third, do they now drop to just 2 bids? 1? They don’t have an automatic qualifiers, so they need to show their collective strength against the other conference before the five teams all hand eachother a bunch of losses. So far outside of Virginia, they haven’t been doing that.

This Week’s Games

Monday 3/14

Fairfield 16 v Binghamton 11 (CAA v America East)

Tuesday 3/15

Penn State 11 @ Bucknell 12 (Big Ten v Patriot)

VMI 6 @ Monmouth 11 (SoCon v MAAC)

Lafayette 10 @ Rutgers 22 (Patriot v Big Ten)

Wednesday 3/16

Vermont @ UMass (America East v CAA)

UMass-Lowell @ Stony Brook (America East v America East)

Friday 3/18

Navy @ Johns Hopkins (Patriot v Big Ten)

Saturday 3/19

Utah @ Georgetown (ASUN v Big East)

Binghamton @ Albany (America East v America East)

Air Force @ Mercer (ASUN v SoCon)

Bellarmine @ VMI (ASUN v SoCon)

Merrimack @ Bryant (NEC v NEC)

Bucknell @ Loyola (Patriot v Patriot)

St. John’s @ Dartmouth (Big East v Ivy)

Drexel @ Villanova (CAA v Big East)

Cleveland State @ Hampton (ASUN v SoCon)

Hobart @ Sacred Heart (NEC v NEC)

Rutgers @ Hofstra (Big Ten v CAA)

Jacksonville @ UMass-Lowell (SoCon v America East)

Quinnipiac @ Manhattan (MAAC v MAAC)

St. Bonaventure @ Marist (MAAC v MAAC)

Marquette @ Robert Morris (Big East v ASUN)

NJIT @ Vermont (America East v America East)

Penn @ Princeton (Ivy v Ivy)

Boston U @ Holy Cross (Patriot v Patriot)

Lehigh @ Army (Patriot v Patriot)

Michigan @ Notre Dame (Big Ten v ACC)

Brown @ Harvard (Ivy v Ivy)

Providence @ Fairfield (Big East v CAA)

Yale @ Cornell (Ivy v Ivy)

Wagner @ LIU (NEC v NEC)

Lafayette @ Colgate (Patriot v Patriot)

Syracuse @ Stony Brook (ACC v America East)

Saint Joseph’s @ Mount St Marys (NEC v NEC)

Maryland @ Virginia (Big Ten v ACC)

Towson @ Duke (CAA v ACC)

Sunday 3/20

Johns Hopkins @ Delaware (Big Ten v CAA)

Denver @ Ohio State (Big East v Big Ten)

UMBC @ Richmond (America East v SoCon)

North Carolina @ High Point (ACC v SoCon)

Siena @ Canisius (MAAC v MAAC)

Games to Look Out For

The headliner game is of course the 2021 title rematch between Maryland and Virginia. It should have zero effect on the weekly polls outside of the first two spots switching. But outside of that, I love the all-Ivy matchups of Brown/Harvard and Penn/Princeton. The other games on this list are mostly there because of teams with something to prove against those with something to lose. Saint Joseph’s is getting a ton of attention, meaning they should be able to put away Mount St. Mary’s. But that’s a team that is known to be quite stubborn. You also have to see if Syracuse can bounce back against a Stony Brook squad that is looking to be the best in a struggling conference which they can’t even win.

Sneaky Good Matchups

North Carolina @ High Point (ACC v SoCon)

Johns Hopkins @ Delaware (Big Ten v CAA)

Saint Joseph’s @ Mount St Marys (NEC v NEC)

Utah @ Georgetown (ASUN v Big East)

Navy @ Johns Hopkins (Patriot v Big Ten)

Brown @ Harvard (Ivy v Ivy)

Towson @ Duke (CAA v ACC)

Syracuse @ Stony Brook (ACC v America East)

Drexel @ Villanova (CAA v Big East)

Not So Sneaky Matchups

Denver @ Ohio State (Big East v Big Ten)

Yale @ Cornell (Ivy v Ivy)

Maryland @ Virginia (Big Ten v ACC)

Michigan @ Notre Dame (Big Ten v ACC)

Bucknell @ Loyola (Patriot v Patriot)

Penn @ Princeton (Ivy v Ivy)

Lehigh @ Army (Patriot v Patriot)